The Unconstitu​tional Obama

While President Obama is frequently cited as having been a “professor” of Constitutional Law at U. Chicago, he was not. He was effectively a lecturer, which in prestige, permanence, and pay is no professoriate.

Now, as President, Mr. Obama has exhibited a contempt for that document rarely seen by those steeped in its intricacies and history. In his term in office he has issued decrees to unelected bureaucrats to do that which he cannot, and which he has admitted he should not do. The odd mix of admissions of limitations challenged by his political determination to do, has put him in the position of being our first “do as I say, not as I do” president.

Obama’s initial challenge of “No” was with Obamacare, a mélange of health legislation and decrees which, if deemed constitutional, will forever change the delivery and costs of such services in America. Last year Obama anointed the EPA with far-reaching authority to mandate rules and regulations regarding emissions and environmental “hazards” which congress would not grant him because their effects would severely damage the economy.

This usurpation of congressional authority has not yet been judicially challenged, so for the moment it is a win for him. Then, last week, in a blatantly political, pre-election, non-executive order Obama simply gave his Department of Homeland Security the right to mandate special treatment for 800,000 illegal aliens resident here. This after his admission last September at a public forum that he had no authority to act unilaterally on this issue.

Mr. Obama is a political animal whose disregard for constitutional behavior is stunning. His attitude indicates a preference for telling both congress and voters that if they don’t like his actions they can “lump them” and change them once he has left office. Of course we can, but removing his stains is both a time consuming and costly legacy no electorate deserves, especially one whose polls are squarely opposed to Mr. Obama’s supra-constitutional agenda.

Conservative commentary by Richard Klitzberg